'Art as Technique'

 

 

I then began to research into Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky who coined the term 'defamiliarization' in his essay 'Art as Technique'. I felt it would be beneficial to print off the entire essay and analyse certain aspects of the essay itself which directly relates to art and defamiliarization.

After reading Shklovsky’s ‘Art as Technique’, a complete understanding was gained in relation to the habitualization of life which overrules most of our everyday actions. I began by highlighting certain words and sentences which affects the way I think of art and what it should accomplish due to its ability to differentiate itself from the mundane routines of life.  Shklovsky readily applies the effects of automatization and defamiliarization to poetry in particular, but often relates this to art, as poetry is a creative act in itself. Through my analysis of the essay itself, I attempted to highlight those parts which relate specifically to art and life to make it all the more relevant to my theme.

 

I found the most interesting parts of the paper to be in the description of the automatization of life and the fact that we only really encounter anything once in our life and after that, nothing has the same effect upon us and this is why things become almost automatic. Shlovsky’s references to algebra and how words are replaced with symbols. This could then relate to communication being replaced by actions in day to day life and miscommunication and the consequences this can have. In my own work, I tend to look into representing ideas through symbolic objects and the connotations which they convey which is then worked upon conceptually and aesthetically and I find the general idea of algebra and its relationship to defamiliarization to be quite an interesting link which I did not connect before reading ‘Art as Technique’. The concept of recognition is also mentioned, and how once we recognise something, we never truly perceive it the same way we did the first time, and therefore significance is lost. He then goes on to speak about how speech is replaced through ‘phrases unfinished and words half expressed’, as we continue to replace things which results in a loss of meaning through a continuation of what develops into unconscious actions. In an attempt to reawaken the sensation of life, the effects of defamiliarization evoke us to see the familiar in a strange way, allowing us to re-encounter it in our life.

 

Quotes from Art as Technique which I felt related to my theme.

 



“Art is thinking in images.”

“Without imagery there is no art, and in particular no poetry.”

“Economy of mental effort”

“Thinking by means of images”

“The purpose of imagery is to help channel various objects and activities into groups “

“To clarify the unknown by means of the known.”

“It survives chiefly in the wake of Symbolism.”

“Images change little”

“They flow on without changing”

“Images belong to no one.”

“The artistry attributed to a given work results from the way we perceive it.”

“Imagery as a practical means of thinking, as a means of placing objects within categories; and imagery as poetic, as a means of reinforcing an impression. “

“Emphasize the emotional effect of an expression”

“Law and aim of creativity.”

“General laws of perception, we see that as perception becomes habitual.”

“Automatic”

“All our habits retreat into the area of the unconsciously automatic.”

“Such habitulation explains the principles by which, in ordinary speech, we leave phrases unfinished and words half expressed.”

“Things are replaced by symbols.”

“By this “algebraic” method of thought we apprehend objects only as shapes with imprecise extensions; we do not see them in their entirely but rather recognize them by their main characteristics.”

“We only see its silhouette.”

“Perceived thus in the manner of prose perception, fades and does not leave even a first impression.”

“The essence of what it was is forgotten.”

“Algebrization”

“The over-automatization of an object, permits the greatest economy of perceptive effort.”

“They function as through as formula and do not even appear in cognition.”

“Couldn’t remember”

“Since these movements are habitual and unconscious, I could not remember”

“Impossible to remember”

“Conscious person had been watching – established”

“No one was looking, or looking on unconsciously, if the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously then such lives are as if they had never been.”

“And so life is reckoned as nothing.”

“Art exists that one may recover the sensation of life”

“Make one feel things.”

“The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known.”

 “Technique of art is to make objects “unfamiliar”.”

“Increase the difficulty and length of perception”

“Must be prolonged”

“Experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important.”

“After we see an object several times, we begin to recognize it.”

“We know about it but we do not see it.”

“We cannot say anything significant about it.”

“Art removes objects from the automatism of perception in several ways."

“Makes the familiar seem strange by not naming the familiar object.”

“Defamiliarizes”

“Is made familiar both by the description and by the proposal to change its form without changing its nature.”

“Technique of defamiliarization”

“In life people are guided by words, not by deeds.”

“Continues to use the technique even though the motivation for it [the reason for its use] is gone.